I started skateboarding in 2011, which in my opinion was right in the middle of possibly the most confused time in skateboarding.

It was the era of raglan’s, awkward fitting khaki pants, Fully Flared-inspired lipslide combos, the Nike SB Janoski, tazers, and YouTube comments sections filled with homophobic slurs in reference to something people didn’t like. It is now a time that is beyond the modern mind and even though I am currently skating in a pair of Janoski’s, it is not an era I think anyone would ever want to relive for anything more than just the laugh.

YouTube was the age of a toddler and skateboarding was trying to figure out how to navigate the platform. It was before Instagram videos, before the Thrasher part was a weekly occurrence and long before European magazines had great YouTube content. The Berrics’ website was somehow awesome and to my prepubescent mind a ‘Battle Commander’ was just as important and impressive as a video part, although I’m unsure if anyone of conscience mind at the time would have thought that. People were rapping over their parts, single mini ramp tricks were going viral, and stuntmen would get more views and fame than your favourite pros.

It’s time to explore that weird and confused era that is late 2000s, early 2010s skateboarding YouTube, with eight videos that define it.

BEST SWITCH TRE EVER!!! Cody McEntire

This clip is the epitome of that era and I think the perfect place to start us off. The video with the caption ‘So awesome!!!’ posted in 2010 is exactly what comes to my mind when I think of going to the skatepark for the first time, swagged out mini ramp champs doing stanky leg tre flips. There is a reason tall tees and stanky leg tre flips stayed in this era.

The eleven-second-long clip is something that would’ve been posted on Instagram if it came out today. Instagram, however, didn’t even exist as a platform until October that year and didn’t introduce video until June 2013, a complete three years after this clip was released. The lack of existence of Instagram did wonders to this mini ramp run as there is no chance it would not be something that I would talk about, let alone even remember if it was put on Instagram at any point. The mix of the clickbait title, the ridiculousness of his landing one foot halfway down the four-foot ramp has it burned in my brain and probably the brains of the hundreds of thousands of people who also watched this clip between 2010 and 2013.

NinjaLifestyle - Video Part

NinjaLifestyle was like the prototype Gifted Hater, he made videos of him commentating and watching footage that people submitted. He was one of the early YouTuber’s in the mix with the Andy Schrock’s and Aaron Kyro’s, making ‘Day in a Life’s’ and set up videos. He also released this part where he raps over his own footage, a move that could be inspired by Mark Gonzales’ part in the 2001 Real Skateboards video Reel to Real or the fact that he just loves talking out his ass. It is a part full of black snapbacks, white shoes with green laces and lyrics that highlight the wordsmithery of NinjaLifestyle. There are actually some things I like about the part; one it is pretty funny, two some tricks are awesome, notably, the front 5-0 to front noseslide and the last two tricks that put the ender of Shane Goes 2 to shame.

NinjaLifestyle is still making YouTube videos, mostly riding off Gifted Hater’s success, marketing himself in a way that feels like the Gifted Hater for jaded old heads who think skateboarding has gone soft. He probably forgets where he comes from, the days of the rollie pollies and the enjoyment of youth.

Theotis Beasley Sponsor Me Review

This is more prototype Gifted Hater YouTube content; Theotis Beasley and your other favourite pro skater or industry head watch your sponsor me tapes for Altamont. Theotis was everywhere during this era, he had just had a part in Transworld’s Not Another Transworld Video, he had a board that looked like a Nascar, full of stickers from his plethora of sponsors and there were rumours circulating that he was selling more boards than any other pro. There was a pretty epic list of people that ended up on that couch watching sponsor me tapes with Theotis inducing Jerry Hsu, Atiba Jefferson, Patrick O’Dell, Erica Yary and my favourite Jason Dill. It included some ruthless takes from some of those people, especially Dill, who aggressively told people to not put music in their sponsor me tapes, even if they like that new Jay Z album.

This was the era of sponsor me tapes, being the main way to get sponsored and for the most part they seemed to be the only real street footage on YouTube. Mark Suciu, Thrasher Magazine’s 2021’s Skater of the Year blew up after his sponsor me tape (linked is a part from 2009 where he skates to the Ghostbusters theme, can’t find the sponsor me tape) was released to YouTube and shouted out by PJ Ladd on The Berrics.

It was a cool concept. It gave kids like me hope that one day they would get sponsored and get that desired box from their favourite company after their favourite pro watched their footage.

Rest in peace Altamont I really liked my skintight Bryan Herman pro Altamont jeans I had when I was 14, thank you for those.

Tazer S.K.A.T.E

The concept of this is, normal game of S.K.A.T.E but every time someone gets a letter, they get tazed by their opponent. It’s Battle at the Berrics meets Jackass. It was a series by Nigel Alexander who was one of the first skateboarders to have a big YouTube presence, he made a bunch of videos similar to this of games of S.K.A.T.E at The Berrics Westchester skatepark, as well as videos highlighting young kids that were skating around the LA area and he’s still making videos now.

During this era there was an emphasis for game show style content within YouTube skateboarding, which seems to come from the delegitimization of YouTube as a platform for skateboarding from the industry. Full-length videos were still the main thing in skateboarding, so people were rarely posting their real footage on there and it was reserved for content for entertainment purposes. There was Shredit Cards, a series by Tony Hawk’s Ride Channel, where people would submit ten clips and it was edited into an arcade style game with each trick winning money to spend at the Skatepark of Tampa. The Berrics had For the Record a competition seeing how many of one trick someone could do in one minute, they would do it in the park with pros for their website and would take submissions, one of those was for the most kickflips and it was won by a pre-YouTube Ricky Glazer who did 36 kickflips in a minute.

It’s been over ten years since the tazer craze in skateboarding of the early 2010s and no one has been able to tell me why people were obsessed with tasers. If you know, please let me know. My assumption is that it was around the same time people were going to China regularly on skate trips and bringing tazers back with them for some innocent juvenile fun.

P.S. Sorry Davies for linking your video, but I had to.

Two kids skaters pro

With a title that doesn’t make any sense, a minute of lipslide combos, Lakai Manchester’s and Empire of the Sun on the soundtrack, it is as 2011 as it gets. Two kids skaters pro is a shared part of the then prepubescent Brunner twins, Chris and Pierce.

They’re tiny skating handrails and doing ridiculous tech tricks. I’m a few years younger than them and remember watching this as a twelve-year-old as did most kids my age did at the time in awe, full of jealousy, and completely inspired. It was so inspiring seeing kids my age skate so well when my friends and I would struggle to ollie the four stair at the local skatepark. At the same time my impatient undeveloped brain was so jealous that I couldn’t do a single trick from this part even though I’d only been skating for a year. 

Later, they both skated for Expedition One and had a shared part in their 2015 video Gone Fishin’, where they were a little bit taller and a little older. If my memory serves me right, they also had an Expedition One part that was Chuck E. Cheese themed, but I can’t find it, it could’ve been deleted with Expedition’s demise
They are still skating, they premiered their latest video, Separation Anxiety that they worked on together and Pierce turned pro for Corey Duffel’s company Adored at the premiere, which is pretty awesome.

Longest Coconut Wheelie

This video is really strange for many reasons. The first reason is I think if you went to the skatepark on a busy day and asked everyone there what a ‘Coconut Wheelie’ is almost no one would have a clue of what it is. The second is that when you search on YouTube ‘Longest Coconut Wheelie’ the video has been posted by multiple accounts, I can only assume that Dan Garb the man who completed the longest coconut wheelie sent it around hoping for viral success. While all these videos only racked up a total of two hundred thousand views, Dan Garb’s crazy primo manual looking manoeuvre racked up a total of five hundred twenty-five thousand and six hundred minutes of time in my brain and heart. I will try a coconut wheelie for you today, Dan Garb.

Gangsta vs Punk Skater

The compilation of all compilations. A question as old as time, who would win in a battle, gangsta skater or punk skater. This ultimate compilation of footage of both gangsta and punk skaters edited on Windows Movie Maker answers all your questions. Gangsta Skater wins, 2000s Wade Desarmo. It’s a no brainer.

This video is the oldest video in this list and from just before the beginning of the confused era, it’s from 2007, but I still wanted to put it in. It is ultimate early YouTube skateboarding; it would’ve been rude not to mention and to not crown Wade Desarmo the king of gangsta skaters.  

William Spencer the Skateboarding Spider-Man Stunt Double

This part is actually nuts. The things William Spencer can do with a skateboard is so impressive. This had the appeal to everyone, not just skateboarders, everyone loves stunt doubles. He was the stunt double for Spider-Man, which is awesome. I don’t exactly know if this was the first video of him that went viral, but it has almost two million views. His 2009 follow up part in The Denver Shop’s next video In Color, leans even further into his stunt man abilities feeling more like a stunt reel than a video part. Please watch both again. I’m sitting here in the library writing this and watching his parts both giggling and in awe. 

After this everyone wanted a piece of him, there were mini documentaries about him by Vice, Red Bull and The Hundreds. The Berrics also wanted everything to do with him and got him to film a Battle Commander that was full of front flips, a slack line and a 360 flip down the seven stair. I love this guy.   

It’s been over a decade now since the most recent video on this list and it’s funny looking back seeing how much has changed and how much hasn’t. NinjaLifestyle is still talking at his webcam for the internet, the Brunner twins are still filming shared parts just as adults now, Jason Dill is still talking on the internet just with the FA radio show. At the same time so much has changed there has sadly been a big decline in gangsta skaters, the online sponsor me tape isn’t really a thing, kids are just getting sponsored through their skatepark clips on Instagram, Ricky Glazer is an actual skate YouTuber now, and people are more focused on filming parts for one of the European magazines YouTube channels rather than for a local scene video. YouTube now isn’t solely home to weird and wacky skateboarding videos; people have had their legitimate skateboarding careers launched from parts that have been posted straight to YouTube and continue to uphold their careers through filming parts for the platform. There are professional skateboarders that have legitimate careers as well as their own YouTube channels like Pedro Delfino, defying that idea that you can’t be a mainstream pro and have a YouTube channel. He was mentioned a lot in this, but Gifted Hater has shown that you can make YouTube videos and not be thrown into the wacky, corny category.

It’s cool how times have changed and the industry has been able to weave in the platform in a cool legitimate way. We’ve come a long way; I am so curious to see how this era of skateboarding will be perceived in ten years. I wonder where skateboarding will be in 2034, will we even use YouTube or will it be all TikTok?